GRAND
HAVEN, Mich. — Teachers in Grand Haven and Alpena public schools will receive
pay raises while switching insurance plans under new contracts in each
district, according to separate media reports.

Grand
Haven Area Public Schools will continue to buy health coverage through the
Michigan Education Special Services Association, but teachers will switch from
the Super Care I plan to Choices II, a preferred provider plan, The Muskegon
Chronicle reported. That is expected to bring down insurance costs by $600,000
in each of the next two years, the report said.

Teachers
will receive a 1.75 percent salary increase this year and 1.5 percent in
2011-2012, according to The Chronicle. The estimated cost of that increase was
not reported.

The
Alpena News reported that Alpena Public Schools teachers will receive a 0.5
percent pay increase in 2010-2011. They will switch from Blue Cross Blue Shield
PPO I to PPO II insurance, and a salary schedule giving raises for years of
service and educational attainment will be restored to the contract, The News
reported. The costs or savings of those changes were not reported.

Alpena
Superintendent Brian Holcomb told Michigan Capitol Confidential that the
district's top priority was to maintain its status as insurance policyholder
rather than switch to a MESSA plan in which the district would not have control
of deductibles or coverage.